The culprits are Liefeld's former Awesome Comics investor Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, also a producer, and the man who once saved Comico from bankruptcy but ultimately killed it after less than a decade, Andrew Rev. It is also the cause of the cancellation of Chad Bowers' Youngblood run after eleven issues and the BLOOD WARS storyline before it even took off, and Liefeld continuing to take on other comic book projects that are not his creations.
>Where is YOUNGBLOOD? >This is the question I get asked repeatedly, at every store signing or comic convention I attend. Inquiries about Youngblood as a film, a comic book, all of it. The truth is they are in the midst of an ugly custody battle and I currently don’t have any interaction with them for the first time in over 22 years. >In 1997, at 29 years of age, I took on an investor named Scott Rosenberg, he of Malibu Comics. I had a previous relation with him but this was different, Jeph Loeb brought him to the table as a potential partner and after a few discussions, the time felt right to make this move. We made a fancy press announcement and we birthed Awesome Comics. It was meant as a temporary adjustment, If I did not find another partner, Scott would foreclose and own everything, I eventually found another partner, a gentleman named John Hyde and he stepped in to finance Awesome Comics until he and Scott had an issue and Awesome went into freefall and I shuttered the label permanently in 2000. >Scott, John and I agreed to a split of my Extreme catalogue in 1999, we each received 8 titles and could exploit them in media. The environment at the time was not kind to comic book material and I wasn’t selling any of my catalogue picks and neither were John and Scott. Through it all, I maintained publishing rights, bringing you the comic adventures of my creations with different and various creatives under my oversight and until now there were no hiccups whatsoever.
>Long story short, after failing to come to terms on 2 movie deals in recent years, including a movie deal in 2017 that I was so certain was moving forward, I contacted Hank Kanalz and informed him that he should expect some participation, Scott informed me last summer, during 2018 comic con, that in order to raise capital he had sold or partnered with someone for Youngblood comics and toys. I was stunned but not surprised, these are the most important assets that Scott possesses and he needed to raise funds. The man he partnered with is named Andrew Rev, someone unknown to me and he informed me a number of times over the past year that he could make me a big success in comics, the next Todd McFarlane even, and told me I could audition for producing Youngblood comics. You can imagine how well that went over. >So, I currently have questionable access to Youngblood characters, characters I created and shepherded for nearly 3 decades As a result I shut down the storyline that would take Youngblood to issue #100 and beyond. A decidedly new approach is necessary, which I believe is paramount in this post Avengers:Endgame world we find ourselves in. Youngblood will no longer be published by Image Comics or with my involvement at this time, a first in the 27 years since it launched. It’s all really weird but I’ve settled into the realization that this is the way it is going to be. I held it together for 23 years since doing the deal, until now. A film company rang me up last week seeking the rights to Youngblood but it required my involvement and I cannot at this juncture go forward. >Thankfully, my other partner, John Hyde has chosen to go a different path as he realizes the value that I bring to my creations and we have partnered on his selections with Prophet going forward having just set up the feature film and we are currently pursuing Glory in all media. 2/3 of my catalogue receive my involvement and participation.
Jose Collins
>I have BLOODSTRIKE, BRIGADE, BERZERKERS, BLOODWULF, Re:GEX, KABOOM, AVENGELYNE, CYBRID and others in my portfolio, completely under my domain. As I informed everyone last year, I walked away from Netflix because I felt it was not the best opportunity at this time in our ever changing world. I’m a finicky cat. >I share this with you now following an unexpected conversation with the Andrew Rev guy about publishing. In short it was very disrespectful and I had to put distance between me, these people and my creations which were now in a foreign domain. I had to convincingly wash my hands of this corner of my imagination. I have a pretty fertile mind and many new projects yet to advance, many making the media rounds that will be known soon enough. This was a much needed update and hopefully explains the current situation. >Youngblood represented some of my finest work, I’m proud of all the work that was produced. Sadly, film companies will be reluctant to invest the time and money in a venture without the support and blessing of its creator.
Rob is talented enough to create something better than Youngblood, right? I mean he hasnt lost all his creativity? Surely, Rob is not a hack, he can create new, exciting IPs that are full of hype, yes?
Jason Lewis
From a creators rights POV, this is unfortunate, but its the price you pay for having ownership of your creations.
>The right to full ownership of what we fully create. >The right to full control over the creative execution of that which we fully own. He had the ownership, and he split it three ways.
>The right of approval over the reproduction and format of our creative property. >The right of approval over the methods by which our creative property is distributed. Well, obviously he has no control over that anymore since he can't make his own Youngblood comics. But that's the contract he signed.
>The right to full control over the licensing of our creative property. I mean, he was able to stop a movie version of YB with a phone call.
Sebastian Gray
So, who has the full control of the IP now?
Thomas Jenkins
>Rosenberg >Loeb
huh
Dylan Wright
Literally like 75% of comic writers are Jewish.
Cameron Nelson
that's true, in a completely unrelated topic, isn't the comic book industry full of people screwing each other over and ripping each other off?
Robert Gomez
That’s every entertainment industry.
Jaxson Bell
Fascinating. I wonder if there's a common thread throughout the media and entertainment industries that would account for such mendacity
Liam Evans
Why do you care if Jews are screwing over/ripping off other Jews? Also it’s not like rich WASPs don’t do the exact same shit. Greed wasn’t invented or trademarked by Jews.
Meanwhile Youngblood is still on comiXology as of this posting. Andrew Rev is a very elusive person. Lawsuit when?
Jacob Wright
Unironically he can and will.
Lincoln Rodriguez
>(((Rosenberg)))
Lucas Campbell
I mean in a way this is a shame but if it had to happen to anyone I am just happy that it is Rob Liefeld.
Jackson Nelson
>the last green lantern air bender homosexual
Joshua Hernandez
>Rosenberg >Loeb >suprised he got screwed made his own bed
Nicholas Reed
>Rob is talented lol
Adrian Turner
Youngblood was retarded. Most Liefeld creations were corny bullshit.
Landon Edwards
I'm a little confused, does he still own Youngblood, and just lost the publishing rights or something? The Youngblood comics published in 2018 just say Copyright Rob Liefeld in the indicia and don't mention Scott Rosenberg.
Nicholas Allen
It sounds complicated. He might have partial rights (publishing were his back in the late 90s) but not full rights (what's probably confirmed is he doesn't have movie/TV rights for it at the moment).
So the Extreme catalog was split between Liefeld, Rosenberg, and Hyde.
Liefeld has Bloodstrike, Brigade, Berzerkers, Bloodwulf, Re: Gex, Kaboom, Avengelyne, Cybrid and some others. Hyde has Prophet. Rev has Youngblood (and some people on BC believe possibly Supreme and Glory as well?)
Logan Stewart
I don't see you making money for drawing poorly
Luke Howard
Kaboom could work as a cartoon but I thought Joe Mad owned it
Andrew Davis
If Rob split the rights to his characters with 2 investors back in 1999, he's probably lucky he had 20 years before this happened. Odd that he let one of them get the Youngblood rights.
Grayson Long
1999/2000 was a really bad time for the comics industry, it was trying to recover from the disasters that came from the glut, Marvel's buying out Heroes World (which indirectly led to Diamond being sole distributor of direct market comics before the decade's end), comic store shutdowns, and so on. If you look at the sales in 2000 compared with say 1997 you'll see why people were worried.
Liefeld had split from Image and publishing through Maximum and later Awesome from 1996 onwards. Liefeld said in OP's post that Rosenberg and Hyde had some kind of issue that led to Awesome going into freefall. This would've happened like in 1997/1998, probably what led to Awesome going on hiatus in 98 the first time around.
I guess at the time he probably felt Rosenberg had the best chance of getting Youngblood onto the screen.
Connor Campbell
And Liefeld's kickstarter for a new Brigade comic from 2013 has still never delivered anything
he created some new 'exciting' xmen character for marvel thats the next big thing since deadpool.
so he has some talent and somehow his stuff seems to work with fans..but youngblood, brigade , and all the rest are all generic characters that are just cable with different pouches.
Joshua Price
Did Maximum go out of business first, or did Rob just end the company because he was going into business with other people to form Awesome?
Jack Hughes
Scott Mitchel Rosenberg is, at least, the ultimate Kike. He founded Malibu just to sell his scripts and gain a name for himself. It worked good enough to at least ended becoming VC of Marvel.
Blake Edwards
>Rosenberg
TO THE SURPRISE OF NO ONE
Jackson Thompson
...
Jonathan Cooper
Dude is literally 100% innocent. He's the only one of the Image founders who just wanted to do his own shit and be able to own it. The rest were all snakes who'd have thrown their own children under a bus for a nickel.
Colton Peterson
>Make a deal with a guy named Rosenberg >Get screwed
>After acrimonious disputes with the other founding partners (not least over allegations of irregularities surrounding Liefeld's separate imprint Maximum Press), Liefeld and Extreme Studios broke from Image Comics in 1996, and became Awesome Comics. Shortly thereafter, Liefeld found a new publisher — writer-producer Jeph Loeb[4] — and additional financing from both John Hyde (Film Roman CEO) and Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, newly Chairman of Platinum Studios. Platinum Studios continues to play an integral part in Liefeld's comics work. (Liefeld had previously worked with Rosenberg, the founder of Malibu Comics, Image's original distributor, which (post-Image) had been sold to Marvel, in 1994.)[3]
